The messaging mistakes that trigger ACMA fines: a dealer's guide to SMS and email that stays legal
Consent, identify, unsubscribe. The three rules are simple, but the fines are not. Here is where Australian businesses get caught, and how your dealership avoids joining the list.
Your team sends hundreds of texts and emails a week: follow-ups, service reminders, trade-in offers, sold-order updates. Most of it is good, useful contact. But the same channel that wins your next deal can also land your dealership an infringement notice, and the regulator has been busy. The good news: the rules are short, and staying on the right side of them is mostly process, not luck.
The three rules behind every compliant message
Under the Spam Act 2003, the Australian Communications and Media Authority sets out three requirements for any commercial electronic message you send. According to the ACMA, you must have the recipient's consent before you send, every message must clearly identify your business, and every message must contain a functional unsubscribe option. The ACMA also notes a trap dealers fall into: you cannot send an electronic message to ask for consent, because that request is itself a marketing message.
Identification is more than a signature. The ACMA advises using the correct legal name of your business, or your name and Australian Business Number, and that this information stays accurate for at least 30 days after you send. If a third party sends on your behalf, the message must still identify your dealership as the business that authorised it. That last point matters: outsourcing the send does not outsource the liability.
Where dealerships actually get caught
Most fines are not about consent alone. They are about unsubscribes that were ignored or broken. Law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth notes the ACMA's recent enforcement has focused on businesses that kept messaging people more than five business days after they opted out, or sent messages with no functional unsubscribe at all. The five-business-day window comes from section 18(5) of the Act, and as privacy specialists at Prosper Law point out, breaches are strict liability, meaning a technical glitch or a shared inbox nobody watches is no defence, and each failed unsubscribe can count as a separate contravention.
The numbers show why this is not a paperwork issue. Coleman Greig Lawyers reports that food-delivery business DoorDash received an infringement notice of $2,011,320 after sending more than 566,000 promotional emails to customers who had already unsubscribed. Across sectors, Norton Rose Fulbright notes the ACMA issued a record run of fines, including a single penalty of $3.55 million, with penalised businesses spanning retail, wagering, and rideshare. For a dealership, the practical lesson is simple: your unsubscribe list has to be one list, honoured everywhere, and honoured fast.
What 'good consent' looks like on the showroom floor
Consent that would survive a complaint is specific and recorded. In its 1 July 2024 Statement of Expectations, the ACMA recommends express consent built on clear terms that are readily accessible when consent is collected, not buried in fine print, long privacy policies, or multiple click-throughs. In practice that means the tick box on your enquiry form, the wording at the service desk, and the record of who agreed, when, and how, all need to line up. If the ACMA asks, the burden is on your dealership to prove consent existed.
This is worth getting right because the enforcement environment is not softening. Analysis of the ACMA's priorities by law firm Clayton Utz notes businesses paid more than $15 million in spam and telemarketing penalties over an 18-month period, and that misleading marketing and spam remain top regulatory priorities. A tidy consent record and a reliable, single unsubscribe register are cheaper than any of those notices.
Messaging customers well and messaging them legally are the same job done properly. Get consent clearly, say who you are, and make opting out instant and permanent, and the channel stays an asset instead of a risk.
Sources: Avoid sending spam: ACMA, ACMA Spam Act enforcement and the implications for business: Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Unsubscribe Requests: Meeting the 5-Day Rule Under the Spam Act 2003: Prosper Law, Unsubscribed means DO NOT CONTACT: Coleman Greig Lawyers, Don't Filter This Out: Are You Spam Act Compliant?: Norton Rose Fulbright, Spam and telemarketing: the ACMA's expectations and priorities for 2024-25: Clayton Utz (via Lexology). Figures are industry findings, not Dealerloop results.
Frequently asked questions.
- Can our dealership text customers who bought from us years ago?
- Only if you can stand behind the consent. The ACMA treats express consent as best practice, and inferred consent is limited to messaging that is directly related to an existing, provable relationship. A general promotional blast to an old, unconsented list is where businesses get into trouble, so lean on express opt-in and keep the record.
- How quickly do we have to action an unsubscribe request?
- Within five business days under section 18(5) of the Spam Act, though sooner is safer. As Corrs Chambers Westgarth notes, the ACMA has actively fined businesses that kept sending after opt-out, and Prosper Law confirms these are strict-liability breaches, so a system error is not an excuse.
- Are we liable if a third-party platform sends the messages for us?
- Yes. The ACMA is clear that if someone sends on your behalf, the message must still identify your dealership as the business that authorised it, and you remain responsible for holding valid consent and honouring opt-outs.
See what closing the loop is worth on your own numbers.